ABRIDGED Sword Art Online:The Tale of the Rose Knightress
by Johnnieboy11
Summary: Finding herself in a new world, a strange world, that of a Virtual Reality Video Game and with no clues how to get back to Beacon, Ruby Rose is determined to find out if her friends are with her, save the people in Aincrad and to make an asshole by the name of Kirito feel again, either by a sword slap or by a good old-fashioned kick to the heart. NOTE:Ruby is herself, not ABRIDGED!
1. First and Foremost:The Coat

_**Aincrad. Nearly a month after the events of the Black Day. Floor 1 Amphitheater.**_

A single girl clad in a red hood sat in the farthest row from everyone as she watched them debate a strategy to attack the Floor 1 boss, lead by a man with blue hair, shield and sword known as Diabel. She knew only one thing. She wasn't supposed to be here at all. She remembered it all too clearly. That Kayaba guy, in a strange red hood of a game master mentioned it. This place was the Castle Aincrad, an MMORPG they'd have to _clear._ A wild concept, to be considered easy, though. Ruby'd played plenty of MMORPG games in her life, but nothing of this sort. Super-enhanced Virtual Reality. it was like those devices she saw, but jumped up on STEROIDS. Everything looked incredibly real... Only thing was the HUD showing her health and another blue banner(Presumably her Aura) in the top-left corner, as well as her name. She, of course, knew 2000 people had died.

She watched two people ahead of her, a guy with black hair and a girl(Possibly) also clad in a brown overcoat. Ruby pulled on her red coat to hide her weapon... The girl had somehow started this game with _level 85_. A bit unfair if you asked her. Anyways, going on, her silver eyes scanned the meeting place. A small amphitheater just outside the Dungeon that houses the Boss Room, in the tower, a massive ivory structure behind it. Behind it was a small village in which all players that were part of the raiding party rested in. She watched a small man with spiky ginger hair jump in front of the crowd and start spewing stuff about the 'Beta Testers' of the game, some 1000 people, before a big black man stood up and walked toward him.

"And who the hell are you?" Asked the little man in spite. Some Kibo... Kibeh... Kebab... Kibao! That was it. Ruby chuckled, but the big man continued his monologue. "I am known by many names. Mountain Slayer. Thunder Lion. The Chocolate Ax. But you?" He glared at Kibao "You may call me... 'Tiffany'." And the way he said it... He said it with such high frickin' confidence that it made him seem actually terrifying by some manner.

Ruby snorted, before covering her mouth. She wasn't trying to attract attention to herself, but she still got a glance from the girl in the overcoat. She waved it off, then looked back toward Kibao and 'Tiffany', talking. She was ready to burst as she heard the latest exchange. "T-Tiffany, huh? Sounds like a very masculine name..." Stuttered Kibao out of fear. Tiff nodded, then said "Shouldn't be. It's a woman's name."

Kibao backed off, then said "M'kay... I don't know how to talk to you." To which Tiff smirked and nodded, then said "Good, then you can shut up and listen. Does everyone here have this book in their inventory?" and finished off by pulling out a small booklet. The Guide to surviving the first few floors of Aincrad. It was of course put together by the Beta Testers... Ruby skimmed it early on, but, y'know... She was not too keen on reading this kind of stuff. A lot of answers came positive, but there was this one guy who said 'no' then immediately corrected himself. Ruby planted a palm on her face, then sighed.

"This book is full of tips and strategies on how to survive this game. Put together, by the beta testers." Tiff said, placing a hand on the book. "Everyone read it, yet some still died. The Beta Testers did everything they could."

A flurry of excuses came in the form of "Actually... I didn't read it.", "Yeah, I didn't read it either." and "I skimmed it..." Things which made Ruby all the more scared for this little party of 20-30 people about to fight. She rolled her eyes. If the people of Beacon were _this_ unprepared for a mission ever, Beacon, Vale and probably Remnant as a whole would be SCREWED.

"What? None of you people read it!?" Tiff demanded, shocked at the idiocy himself "This is literally a matter of LIFE AND DEATH!" And some guy said "Well, dude, it's like 80 pages."

"Oh, for God's sake..." Ruby muttered to herself, sighing as she pinched her brow. She watched people yell at each-other a bit more, specifically about the 2000 dead people currently in Aincrad's virtual tombs, AKA DEAD TO RIGHTS and their bodies gone into thin air, then he heard "I am so _done_ talking with you people." from Tiffany. The man sat down.

Diabel sighed, happily, then continued "Right. As mr. Thunder Chocolate has been saying, this book" he raised the guide up "has many useful details and strategies to surviving this game. Especially about the first boss, Illfang the Kobold Lord. Here, I'll start reading..." He opened the book " _So, as you enter the boss room, he's gonna send wave after wave of disposable minions at you..."_ He raised his brows, a bit confused " _And you must answer in kind?"_ to which a guy asked "Uhh... Wat?" Diabel merely continued " _Send the weakest players first. Good rule of thumb:If a player asks you for gold two seconds after you've met, Front Lines."_ To which Kibao snorted and said "Hah, serves them right." And Diabel continued " _If he hijacks conversations to rant about his political views, FRONT LINES."_ And Kibao swallowed, then said "Aw, shit...". Onward _"If they ask female players for pics of their boobs, FRONT LINES."_ And a pair of guys booed, while Ruby was giggling incessantly.

"Now, now, guys." Diabel settled calmly "I think there are some fair points being made here. Now, this goes on to say that when Illfang's health goes into the red _He will switch from his ax and buckler to something called a TALWAR. At that point we should initiate a strategy called 'The Final Solution' AAAAND~_ I'm gonna stop reading here!" In surprise, he continued in a quiet mutter "Jesus, who wrote this thing..."

Ruby heard a quiet chuckle from the guy ahead and looked on, confused. The talk continued for a bit more, before the people decided on the ideas of how to take on the boss. Some random guy suggested continuing with this 'Final Solution'. He had a thick accent, probably Atlesia-... Wait, Atlesians aren't around so nevermind that. She watched people finally group up, then sighed and wanted to stand up, before the other girl in the brown hood/overcoat turned to her and waved her toward her and the black-haired kid, who had closed in. She nodded, sweating a bit, then walked down toward them and sat down.

The girl in the hood extended her hand toward her and said "Hi. I'm Asuna."

Ruby nodded, then answered "I'm Ruby." And she shook her hand. She glanced toward the other boy, then said "Hello." And he nodded and said "Sup."

"Ignore him. He's a bit rude." Asuna said, to which Ruby shrugged and said "So?"

"Name's Kirito, by the way." The black-haired boy interrupted, glaring at Asuna. "You should've let me finish." To which she shrugged and said "Right..."

"So... Why aren't you two with the other players?" Ruby asked, crossing her arms.

"I don't much care to go down there and talk with those mouth-breathing Neckbeards who think 'AYY LMAO' is how French people laugh." Kirito answered, crossing his arms. In the background, a voice yelled happily "Ah, that's so Le Mao!" making both Kirito and Ruby shudder. He continued "And Asuna over here doesn't know how to open her menu." TO which Ruby's eyes widened. She asked "How in the good lord's name have you been living FOR SO LONG?!"

"Not the point..." Asuna snarled, then looked to Ruby and said "What about you? Why not join them?" with a bit of worry.

"Let's say I'm... Looking for some friends that I'd party with. Not a bunch of guys like them." She pointed at the group. "They're probably also here, but I haven't found'em for the past month... I pray I'll find'em soon."

Kirito nodded, then said "Cool story." And he stood up "Well, come on... Time to rest for a bit."

Ruby sighed, hearing people complain about this, then rolled her eyes.

* * *

 _ **Floor 1 Dungeon boss room. 7:20 PM.**_

Ruby sighed, planting the sword she'd bought back in the town into the stone floor. She wouldn't risk using Crescent Rose here, especially since it came with her in this world. She'd probably be a target for any player thinking themselves as high-level bandits. Well, _that_ and she still didn't have a high enough level for it. She'd started at level 85, yes! Which was a big head-start in front of everyone, but she'd need level 100 to deal with carrying Crescent Rose... Of course, considering the farming, she was at the whopping level 90 out of 100... So that'd take some sweet-ass time to get to.

Before they got in, she heard people complaining about the stairs, peeing themselves, some even retching. Gross... She sighed, the heard Diabel mention a break, so she took a seat beside the door, blade sheathed by her hip, and started eating a piece of bread she'd also bought back at the village.

She also started with the _stupidly, insanely, retardedly, JUST PLAIN IDIOTICALLY_ high amount of 210.000.000 COL, the money of this place. Girl had a small fortune in her bag, but she'd rather not waste it right now. She watched Asuna come toward her and take a seat. The two girls smiled at each-other, then Ruby nodded and asked, to break the ice "So, how long you reckon we're gonna be holding out?"

"About... An hour." The girl answered, drawing her Rapier and examining it. "Considering all the people here are basically the laziest bunch ever conceived by humanity... Well, all of them except us, Diabel, Chocolate Rain and, sadly, Kirit-asshole, we're gonna be here a while." She looked to Ruby "What's your story? What're you doing in SAO? This place is usually filled with people with social anxiety or some random shit like that."

"Speaks volumes about you, then." Ruby murmured, looking about. Asuna snarled "That was uncalled for..."

"Sorry... Just, living in this place for a month has me going crazy." Ruby said, looking down the edge of her blade. "I'm not usually one with Snark remarks. I'm just a massive weapon geek if anything."

"Oh, cool." Asuna said, a quick personality change. Ruby nodded, then asked "So how come you don't know HOW to open your menu?"

"Don't start with me on that!" Asuna snapped back "Kirito's been on my case with it ever since I told him about it!"

Ruby chuckled, then said "Well... You know what they say. Live and learn. You'll probably learn how the damn thing works pretty soon."

"Hey." Asuna said, looking to Ruby "I got an idea... How about you help me?"

Ruby immediately scrambled for an answer and said "N-No, sorry, I can't! It's... I've got something that bugs out my menu at times. Even I can't open it, or worse, close it then and I'd rather not risk it before a battle." And Asuna sighed, nodded and said "Alright... Maybe when you get it fixed?" To which Ruby smiled, relieved as hell she didn't have to reveal her level to anyone, nodded and said "Aye. Will do."

And with that, the two kept chatting as nearly an hour passed. Ruby stood up, drew her blade from the sheath, then walked beside Diabel, pushing the door open before he could whine. She twirled the sword and took a combat stance as the Boss Room, a room with a high ceiling and tall columns, lit up in multiple colors. Ahead, she saw it. A Massive, fat, red, humanoid creature, with an ax and shield. Beside it, spawned dozens of drones... One of which Ruby noticed had an error. She chuckled "Nice work Kayaba." then took her stance beside Diabel as every idiot and their mother rushed in, attacking enemy units at random.

She heard Diabel issue orders and grinned upon hearing something else "SQUAD F, STOP PLAYING FUCKING BEJEWELED!", but saw a group of Kobold Sentinels rushing her. She twirled her sword, then sent a right-bearing slash across one's chest, before it even had time to defend. She nodded to Diabel, then moved with Kirito and Asuna to help some Squad F. The girl jumped up high and pounced on the enemy first, bringing a blade to bear on the second Sentinel guard and cutting its head clean off. She duly stabbed another one right through its grated mask, sending it tumbling to the floor, then she watched Asuna strike one, right through the chest, with her rapier and smiled... Theeen~ the smile vanished when she thought XP meant a disease.

Ruby sighed, rushed ahead and parried a strike from the boss, then continued knocking out Sentinels, under the gazes of everyone. She was cutting them down left and right, with a stab to the left, right into one's chest and a slash clean across the other, vivisecting it. She gasped as the boss raised a hand to attack her coat, then she pressed on it, removed it, putting it back to her inventory, then dodged and parried the strike from the thing's ax. Everyone gasped upon sighting the young girl, with short hair that went from black at the top, to red at the tips, and silver eyes. She also had a combat skirt, with a basic piece of armor plating over her chest, which was standing out somewhat. On her back was also the boxy Crescent Rose, currently in idle mode.

"Crap..." She swore behind her breath, then she sliced the bastard with one direct strike from her sword, sending him reeling and dropping his last HP Bar to the red. She swiveled around, then dashed back beside Tiff, nodding. She saw it and froze... The bastard drew a Nodachi, not a Talwar. She stepped up toward Diabel, who charged ahead, then yelled "DIABEL, STOP, THAT'S NOT A TALWAR, IT'S A NODACHI!"

"WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE?" Yelled the boy back, readying his blade, which was already powered by a golden Sword Skill. Kirito started yelling "WELL, THE TALWAR ORIGINATED IN INDIA AND THE NODACHI ORIGINATED IN JAPAN AND, WHILE THE FORMER WAS PREFERRED BY CAVALRY FOR RUNNING DOWN TARGETS, THE LATTER WAS USED FOR DICK MEASURING AND-"

"THE POINT HE'S TRYING TO GET TO IS, NODACHI IS LONGER, THUS MORE DAMAGE AND REACH!" Ruby yelled, stepping ahead of the party, blade drawn and eyes fixated on the blade the creature raised toward him. Illfang really had a hancoring for killing people nowadays. She saw that, as it roared, two guys got a rare item. More of a joke which made her laugh. 'Soiled Pants'. She grinned.

Diabel looked toward the Nodachi coming down on him, eyes wide "Oh, Fu-" And he grunted in pain, taking a slice straight to the chest. He got sent flying back behind the allied lines, to which Kirito and Ruby rushed back to him, Ruby sheathing her blade. She dashed to his side, then looked to Kirito helping him. She knelt beside the two, then said "Sorry about not warning you earlier..." with a bit of sorrow. Diabel nodded, then said "It... Could be worse..."

"Really?" Ruby deadpanned, raising her brow. "Worse than dying?"

"Well... Touche..." The boy coughed ,then looked to Kirito "Why ramble on about a sword?"

"Eh... I like to think of myself as a teacher." The boy shrugged nonchalantly, pulling out a healing potion and handing it to Diabel "Go on, drink this." and the blue-haired boy pushed it away, then said "No... I'm done... You are to lead them now..." He looked to both him and Ruby "Both of you... Maybe... If things were different..." And he started to fade. "You think you could've been my friend?" Kirito then asked, and Diabel answered "Unlikely...", then vanished.

"Well..." Kirito sighed "Fuck you too!"

Ruby stood up, grabbed him by the arm and threw him back to his feet, then said "Get yourself fighting, Kirito!" And she looked to Asuna joining them. "I'm taking left and distracting this big hunk of red! You two take it on via switching attacks!" And the two nodded "Copy that!" before Kirito asked "Wait, who made you Leader?!" Ruby, of course, dashing ahead before he had a chance to finish. She pushed herself ahead, then propelled herself into the air utilizing her feet as the creature raised its sword to attack her. She watched the blade coming for her, kicked it aside, then struck at the throat of the damn thing.

"SWITCH!" She yelled and watched Kirito and Asuna charge in. Asuna pummeled and poked it with dead-on strikes from her rapier and Kirito brought his sword to bear down on the creature. Deep red cuts appeared on its body as all three brought their weapons to bear on it. Ruby smirked, then cut clean across its arm and backed off, then yelled "KIRITO, ASUNA, FINISH IT!"

Kirito smirked "I'm getting the last hit in! He's mine!"

"No!" Asuna yelled, throwing several stabs at the creature "HE'S MINE!" And she hit it hard once, dropping its health some more. Kirito growled, then yelled "NO! IT'S! MINE!" And he brought another strike to bear, effectively throwing it upward and vivisecting the creature. It shattered into the night and the brightness of the room fell quite quickly, as Kirito fell to his knees where Illfang used to be, with a pop-up in front of him. Ruby smiled, set her red hood back on, then watched Kirito stand up and look to Tiff, who smiled and said "You did it, Kirito. You and your friends cleared this floor. I and these men would follow you into hell and back. You may want to say something to your people."

Ruby smiled as Kirito stood up, then nodded and said "I always knew this day would come. Fellow gamers. We have travelled far and up many stairs to get to this point, fighting side by side, noob and leet alike. I'd like to take a moment to say that I couldn't have done it without the help of each and every one of you ..." And then... Things took a turn for the worst. "'Course, I'm not a liar so I ain't gonna say that's all true..."

"Ohshit..." Tiff started.

"I mean, really, I could've done this whole boss fight thing myself, but to be fair, I guess you did absorb a bit of damage for me which was nice." He had a wide, devilish grin on his face "You were an adequate meat shield and no one could ever take that away from you. " To which "Fuck! _fuck!_ Shut up!" Tiff yelled in discontent, but Kirito continued "So for those of you who came in late and that one guy playing Bejeweled back there, shoot for the stars..." and he accessed his menu, setting his coat on "It'll make it all the more fun for me to knock you down."

"You're not better than us!" Said a poor kid from the background. Kirito smirked widely, then said "My sweet _-ass_ coat begs to differ." so snarkly, so smugly, Ruby could only help but cringe at that after setting her own hood back onto her head and, to that, the guy answered "Fuck, he got us there!" and Kirito walked away. Ruby and Asuna ran toward him and the ginger-haired Asuna yelled "Kirito, wait!" As they got up the stairs.

"What?" Kirito asked, smugly, looking at them.

"I want half." Asuna blurted out, grinning.

"Excuse me, what?" Kirito asked, looking back at the girl, clearly confused at this.

"I want my half of the coat. I helped you win, didn't I?" She rhetorically asked, crossing her arms. Ruby tilted an eyebrow, then said "SERIOUSLY. THAT'S IT? NOT GONNA ASK HIM ABOUT HIS LITTLE SPEECH BACK THERE?" with quite a bit of shock, pointing back at the crowd. Asuna shrugged and said "Beh. Plebs." And she looked to Kirito "I did half the work, I should get half the coat."

Ruby was basically screaming internally at this, before Kirito shot back "No! This isn't fabric I can cut! It's a bunch of ones and zeroes!" quite oddly. Ruby sighed, rubbing her forehead as Asuna responded "Then I want the ones!" And Kirito "Fuck you, I want the ones!" And he sighed "Ugh, I'm not having this argument! I'm dissol... Wait I can't. Fuck that, I'm dropping out of this party." He ran his hand over the menu and dissolved the party formed between him, Ruby and her. Well, at least he quit, not dissolved it.

"Kirito," Asuna barked angrily at the boy, taking another step up "If you walk away with half my coat, I'll make your life a LIVING HELL!"

Kirito sighed, not looking back, then said "Fine, I'll give you the coat." His grin widened "You'll just have to send me a trade request."

"Uhh, what?" Asuna asked, raising an eyebrow. Kirito gave the killing blow right there "Oh, it's easy... You just have to open your _menu."_ And he walked away, laughing maniacally, to which Asuna yelled "YOU SON OF A BITCH!" And Ruby groaned, rolling her eyes, at the stupid sight before her. Kirito walked through the gate. Ruby looked to Asuna, then said "Thanks for everything, Asuna. If it's any comfort, I managed to snatch this in an attack." with a smile, as she threw Asuna a stronger rapier. "I'm sorry... But I dread of leaving _that_ guy alone." She tilted her head toward the door, effectively motioning at a now-gone Kirito. "But, here. You move your hand down like this..." Ruby inadvertently opened her menu, without showing her level and she sent Asuna a friend request, then smiled "There. Now you can track my progress."

Asuna ran her hand down through the air, opening her menu with a smile, then she clicked the message and opened the window, accepting Ruby's friend request. She nodded, then said "Thanks..." She checked Ruby's nickname and started laughing as the name was also written in fucking **_BOLD ITALICS_** " ** _xXx_R053_R34P3R_xXx_**! JESUS CHRIST, HOW DID I NOT SEE THAT BEFORE?!" and she continued laughing... To which Ruby rolled her eyes. She was gonna have Kayaba's head for writing her name in 1337, or LEET SPEECH... But for now... She'd have to just find Kirito and yank that pole out from his behind... At least that was the plan. She nodded to Asuna with a smile, then started walking away, all whilst thinking to herself.

 _"This is gonna be a looooong~ game..."_

* * *

 ** _AN:ALRIGHT, SO, I HAVE TWO RWBY/ABRIDGED!SAO STORIES IN THE PREPPING. THIS ONE AND ANOTHER ONE WHICH TAKES THE ABRIDGED!SAO CREW PLUS 4(Phillia, Strea, Sinon and Leafa from Hollow Fragment) INTO THE RWBYVERSE. This is gonna be fun, seeing Ruby trying to figure out her shit while working with mr. Asshole Kirito and his idiotically crazy life and, well, jackass personality per se... So, Ruby's stats per this game, right now._**

 ** _Ruby Rose_**

 ** _Nickname in-game:_** _ **xXx_R053_R34P3R_xXx(Hahahaha~! Kayaba u joker)**_

 _ **Current Level:90(Via glitch in the system. Unidentifiable, thus unfixable. She can still level up)**_

 _ **Stats: AGI 765/1000**_

 _ **STR 565/1000**_

 ** _HP 22000/22000_**

 ** _CSM(Charisma) 665/1000_**

 ** _Everything else is pretty high level, if not maxed out._**

 ** _'Till next time..._**

 ** _TOODLES~! :D_**

 ** _P.S. Don't worry. Ruby will have a flashback of winding up in Aincrad within the next chapter. I don't plan to leave plot-holes here, SO DON'T START YELLING AT ME ABOUT LOST POTENTIAL OR SOMETHING. Thanks._**


	2. Kayabaaaa!

**_A month earlier._**

Ruby felt herself tumble to the floor, a stone-coated road. She immediately bounced back up to her feet, then looked around, her gaze wide at the sight of a very large plaza she found herself in. Behind her was a tall obelisk-like monument, right in the middle of the square and, farther back, a pathway that lead to a black castle. The girl couldn't help but be confused as her gaze swept the area above her. What looked like a roof felt more like a blue ceiling with little-to-no sun showing. Like the place they were in was artificially lit by something.

She looked to herself, to see she still had her usual red hood on, her combat skirt, corset and other pieces of uniform, but there was one addition... She had a grey steel breastplate over her chest. She patted it, hearing the clang and sighed, before her eyes were taken aback by what seemed to be a Heads-Up Display. She looked to the top-left corner, to see a green bar and a smaller, blue one below it.

"Wait, what?" The girl questioned herself, squinting at the Health Bar. It said she had well over some 1900 HP?! And below it must've been the Aura... 400 Aura. Interesting. She didn't know it was so weaaaait~ a second... A Health and Aura bar, an odd place... Could she be in some kind of prank Yang made? The girl had an innate ability of pulling this kind of stuff, but it didn't make sense. She looked ahead, to the sight of a pair of people walking through the square and chatting. Both of them were dressed in what seemed to be leather chest plates, colored sweaters, grey pants and some odd shoes. The two stopped and turned toward her, a guy and a girl, the former with dark-red hair and the latter with dark-blue bangs, both seemingly friendly enough.

"Hey there." One of them said, a relaxed smile on his face. Ruby smiled and said "Hi. Can I ask you two a question?"

"Sure." Nodded the other, arms crossed. Ruby tapped her chin, then asked promptly "Where are we? I... Haven't seen this place before."

The two glanced at each-other, then looked to Ruby and the guy answered happily "What, you serious? You're in Aincrad. The main setting of the best VR game ever, SWORD ART ONLINE!"

Ruby gasped. She was in a Virtual Reality game THIS REAL?! This wasn't good... She nodded to them, then saw one of them open his menu. He slashed his hand down into the air and the menu, white blobs and pages, appeared before him. Each button had a symbol. Menu, Guide, Settings, Character, Inventory... Ruby nodded to them, then said "Well... Thanks, you guys. Must've had a hard one yesterday that I can't even remember this... That and my friends must be playing a prank on me."

"Oh." The boy said, nodding with a smile as he looked at Ruby. "Alright. Gotcha." And he extended his hand toward her "I'm Keita. Girl beside me is some random friend I picked up here in the market." To which Ruby shook his hand, Smiling "Call me Ruby."

"Pleasure to meet you, Ruby." The girl beside him gave Ruby a warm smile. "I'm Sachi."

"Pleasure to meet you too, Sachi, Keita." Ruby nodded. Might as well have some fun in here if this was a game. She nodded to them, then said "Well, you guys, I kinda have to run off, try and find a group of my friends, since they're probably already online. Maybe we can talk another time?" And the two nodded, Keita giving Ruby a mocking salute, then saying "Sure thing, Ruby. See you 'round." And the two walked off. Ruby exhaled, then thought to herself " _Yang, I'm a game geek. Whatever you just did won't work!"_ And she smirked, then started running out of the Plaza and into the crowded streets of the town, laughing. If this was a very advanced VR game, Yang wasn't pulling a prank. She must've actually bought Ruby the game and set her up for it while she was asleep! AWESOME!

As she moved through the streets, she stopped for a moment, then took a corner into one of the alleyways and decided to quickly open up her menu. Moving her hand down, the little white dots with symbols inside rolled ahead of her. She moved her hand and pressed the character 'button' (Metaphorically speaking, since this seemed to be a hologram) then gasped, staggering back as she saw her character.

"Super-high stats, a load of money... Some 210.000.000 Col, the money of this place, OHMYGOD..." The girl whispered to herself with a grin as she had a bit of a nerdgasm relating to this all. "Yang must've gone and bought me a Premium account!" And her smile widened, seeing her rank SO BLOODY EARLY into the game was THIS HIGH. "Rank 85!" She squeaked in silence, pumping her fist in the air. She smiled, then closed the menu and grabbed her cloak, before banging her hand on something metallic behind her. She stopped, then looked back to see Crescent Rose... In its IDLE form...

"What?" The girl asked herself in muted surprise, eyes widened beyond belief. She tried to grab the weapon, but received a warning in her Menu, to which she looked. It was written in bold **WEAPON INACCESSIBLE UNTIL LEVEL 100** , making the girl roll her eyes. Okay, so it was probably also something Yang had brought the little girl with her own, hard-earned(From Dust knows where) Lien. Still, a bit unfair to the other players she was 85 and had close access to the weapon, but then again, the lower dungeons of this game are probably just cannon fodder with little XP to actually give upon killing. Even the bosses... Great, so that'd take her a whole lot of endless grinding to get to use this virtual version of Crescent Rose... Bollocks.

Beh... She'd have plenty of time to grind, she guessed. She walked back out into the light of day, then to a shop to buy a weapon. Possibly a sword or heavy bladed weapon. She smiled as she originally brought a shortsword to use early on. It was a relatively light weapon and very bland in its design. The pummel below it had a bit of cloth hanging by it, red like her robe and, of course, the weapon's guard was rounded and made of steel, a pretty interesting design choice. Meanwhile the blade curved a bit as it reached the top and it looked really sharp. She twirled it, then struck forward and smiled. The girl then sliced upward, turned the weapon around and, holding onto the sheath that was attached to her hip, she slid it in, locking it in place, then nodded to the vendor, an NPC and waved goodbye, walking away.

Of course, the next few hours were spent in the outer fields of the Town of Beginnings, as known by everyone inside. The girl had read the guide and everything about Sword Skills and such. Specifically, Rosebud Blades, a skill she'd discovered in her skill tree. Her sword turned red as she faced four boars, then attacked at top speed. One strike cut through the first boar, then another and another, making the creature's health drop to -145. Wow. She was quick. She swiveled around and vivisected the second boar, then stabbed a third one through the mouth and, finally, kicked the fourth one in the air and jumped, slicing across it harder than Raiden from MGSV. The four aggro'd boars vanished into sparkles, to which Ruby smiled widely.

"AWESOME!" She yelled, jumping continuously. She smirked, twirled the blade and sheathed it, then looked back, to be greeted by a human body and... The face of a CAT?! She gasped, jumping back at the sight of a black cat's head with a golden eye and a blue one. She looked on, horrified, as it meowed at her, then staggered back, chuckled and said "Wow... A cat that can play video games... That's... _Toooootally~_ NOT weird! Hehe..." And she laughed weakly, then turned around and started walking away, placing her hood on her head and still wanting to wipe that thing out from her head.

Of course, dusk had come and the night began to fall. The sky turned crimson, then orange as the 'sun' set upon this place, so she wanted to call it a day... Sliding her hand to open the menu and going over to the 'System' part of the menu, she looked for the 'Logout button'... But instead found but an empty button in its stead. No words or anything. She pressed it, trying to log out, then saw it didn't work, and staggered back.

"A glitch? This early?" The girl wondered aloud... A blue aura surrounded the girl and she felt herself vanish and reappear... Back in that plaza. She looked up to the sky as people began talking around her, fear in their voices, then saw it. A red hexagon with _**WARNING**_ blaring on it... Then it suddenly spread, covering the entire sky and frightening everyone. What the heck was going on?!

"What's going on?!" Yelled a girl from beside Ruby, before a guy comforted her. She sighed, then wondered that herself as she stared up at the sky... From where blood or, something similar started to drip... It was a strange event to say the least... But the blood-like crimson goop soon formed and molded itself into a humanoid form, in a cape, with smoke emerging from the face. She heard an idiot in the crowd said "Oh, it's a person!" From afar, then sighed, planting a palm on her face. The man flying above them, some sort of giant, extended his hands, then said loudly " _Ladies and Gentlemen! I am Kayaba Akihiko, head programmer. Welcome, to the unparalleled online experience that is Sword Art Onli-"_ And he got cut off by people starting to yell at each-other. " _Uh. Hel- Hello. Um, hello! People! Kinda talking here? Focus!"_ Kayaba whined, then he sighed, raising his hand and saying something about muting the group chat, but muting himself by mistake. Ruby chuckled, seeing the MUTE Symbol above the man's head.

" _Alright... I just realized what happened there, very funny. Now, onto the serious business. How many of you have seen TRON?"_

Silence... Not what Kayaba wanted, but it made Ruby chuckle.

" _Really? No one? I was kinda betting on that but..."_ Akihiko sighed " _Alright, it's fine, I can wing this..."_ and he cleared his throat " _Much like the World of Warcraft, none of you are here by choice anymore. Unlike WoW, though, you're being held here by me, not by your need to escape your empty f*BLEEP*ing lives. There's no longer a way to log out of Sword Art Online and if someone on the outside attempts to log you out by removing your NerveGear, well..."_ He paused " _Has any one of you seen 'Scanners'?"_ And yet again, uneasy silence. Kayaba sighed, then said " _Alright, fine..."_ And he pulled up several internet tabs, of which one was a videoclip of a man in a suit... WHOSE HEAD EXPLODED IN A SHOWER OF BLOOD AND GORE, WHAT?!

The entire crowd gasped in shock and fear at that. Ruby struggled to swallow, sweating profusely from her palms, head and the rest of her body... This wasn't home anymore... How'd she wind up here?! Kayaba continued his monolgue " _Finally. Some gears are turning! Glad to see we're making some progress!"_

"Why would you do such a thing?!" Asked a guy from the crowd, to which Kayaba chuckled, then asked " _Steven? Is that you, Steven? How're you enjoying the advanced copy we sent to you!"_

"I'M PLAYING WITH MY FAMILY!" The man yelled back.

 _"Ah, that's right!_ " Kayaba chuckled again. " _Happy birthday, Timmy!_ " And, to that, a young boy cried in the crowd. " _Ah, they grow up so fast. Cherish these moments, Steven. Cherish these moments. So, as I was saying, the only way to keep the NerveGear from going all Gallagher on your grey matter is to make your way through Castle Aincrad's 100 floors and complete Sword Art Online!"_

"So..." Another guy in the crowd started, to which Ruby sighed. Why'd she have a feeling this was gonna go on for a while. "You want us to beat an MMO?"

 _"Essentially."_ Kayaba deadpanned.

"F*BLEEP*CK YOU!" the same guy yelled and things were becoming clearer and clearer for Ruby. She was definitely not home anymore. Kayaba commented something about hostility, but Ruby was too worried as she scanned her immediate surroundings for Weiss, Blake and, most importantly, Yang, to clarify to her what the hell was going on out here. They weren't home is the only thing she could tell...

"Well, honestly, when was the last time you heard of someone beating _EverQuest?!"_ Barked that same guy. Kayaba retorted smugly "When was the last time you heard of someone actually _PLAYING_ EverQuest?"

"Touche..." Ruby chuckled, a bit out of her moment of panic.

"Anywho, for all you guys playing as girls, you know who you are, I've prepped a little surprise for you!" Kayaba said with a bit of joy to his talk. Ruby saw mirrors appear in front of her and every other player, then gasped, seeing her Avatar flash blue and show HER OWN FACE AND HAIRCUT there. She set the mirror in her pocket, then looked around at the guys and some of the gals showing up post-situation.

Everyone gasped, making Kayaba chuckle. "As you all can see, I've peeled away your petty facades and revealed you for what you truly are:" He paused, then smiled behind his mask "Fairly attractive 20-somethings... Apparently... Kind of undermines the whole 'cold light of day' thing I had planned. But still, way to break the stereotypes!" And he looked to a guy in the far back "Except for you, fatty... Way to bring down the curve... Oh, oh oh!" He excitedly started "One more thing! I should probably mention that if your Health Points reach ZERO in the game, your real body will also perish!"

Ruby gasped. She didn't need no explanation for that, but someone in the background snapped her out before she was able to panic and burst into a sprint, by yelling " _WHAT?"_ Like a retarded hawk. "Okay... If you die in the game, you die for real." Kayaba clarified, making RUby all the more scared. Yet again, same idiot " _WHAT?"_ Making Kayaba sigh deeply, then say "SOMETIMES. THINGS ARE BORN. THEY LIVE AND THEN THEY STOP, FOREVER..." _"WHAT?"_ And Kayaba replayed the guy's head exploding. And someone blurted out the obvious "OHMYGOD! IF WE DIE IN THE GAME, WE DIE FOR REAL!" And Kayaba sighed, with Ruby in unison. " _Alright ,I'll just keep that tabbed and, with that, I BID YOU ALL ADIEU."_ And the man started turning into smoke, but he chuckled and said "Oh, oh, one last thing, I swear! I turned off the profanity filter... Have fun with that!" And he finally vanished, with the red sky.

Silence settled in the plaza, with Ruby staring up above at the darkened sky. She sighed, then turned toward the barrier, before she heard someone yell loudly _"WE'RE FUCKED!"_ To which she chuckled, then walked away and out of the Plaza, while every one of the 10.000 players scrambled out of the place, hood on her head, cape covering her body and weapons and nothing else but her clothing and armor on. She was gonna live through this even if it ki... That didn't make sense at all, but okay. A saying to go with this was that and that only.

* * *

 _ **Aincrad. Present Day. Second Floor. Urbus.**_

That all, of course, had happened nearly a month ago, as Ruby reminisced it today. She'd found out from both Kirito and other players that this was an interesting turn of events. These people came from a planet named 'EARTH' and were stuck in this game. She'd never mentioned Remnant or anything, so she'd be okay for now. The girl had been tailing Kirito throughout the remaining night as he walked through the streets of the village. The place was a little mountain-carved village, that was Deppressing as all hell to walk through, what with the music that was playing... She decided to cut off the music in sound settings, just so she wouldn't wind up jumping off a fucking cliff.

Kirito stopped ahead of her, then said "I know you're back there, R053. Stop trying to hide." And he swiveled about, crossing his arms. "Christ, a Stalker already."

"Oi." Ruby said, glaring at him as she reached for her sword. She became tense from him turning about, but she lowered her hands beside her body and sighed, becoming less tense as she walked past him. "It's just Ruby. Not the 1337 Speak stuff, Kirito." She then finished off. Kirito nodded, then said "Alright, alright... What do you want? Why chase me up here?" He asked, receiving a shrug from Ruby, to which she continued "Well, I'm not in the mood to see even people like you die, so... I'm trying to keep you safe. Kind of an oath I made waybackwhen."

"Oh, god..." Kirito sighed, rubbing his forehead "You aren't some Sister of Battle, are you? Those girls usually make oaths like that and it _never_ ends well..." And he walked beside Ruby, arms crossed. He looked above as night fell, then said "Well, do you want to know what's with this floor?"

"Sure thing, Mr. Beta Tester." Ruby smirked, making Kirito back off and ask "How the FUCK did you know that about me?!"

"Form, knowledge of weapons... Snarky remarks about this whole mess of a game?" Ruby answered nonchalantly with a question "It'd take a blind, paraplegic baby with mental impairment only a second to figure out you were a Beater, to call it short." She gave out a wide, shit-eating grin to Kirito, who blushed and growled "OI! NOT SOMETHING MALE GAMERS ARE PROUD OF, SO I DON'T NEED A NICKNAME FOR IT!"

Ruby looked at him, confused, then asked "Uhh, what? I was just saying that you got pretty far as a Beta Tester, beating a lot of floors, so you got the nickname Beater from me... Problem with that?"

Kirito's face became red, then he sighed and said "No... No problem, Little Red Ridinghood..." And he mumbled "You and your fucking innocence scare me..." He sighed, then continued as they walked "ANYWAYS. This place has mobs that are just cows and ox's. Easy kills, right?" To which Ruby smiled, then nodded and said "Yep. Sounds easy enough to me."

"Yeah, well, rookie mistake." Kirito said, walking beside her with his hands in his pockets. "These things are fucking assholes on so many levels, it makes you completely wish you were fighting Skeletons or some shit."

"Oh..." Ruby sighed, rubbing her eyes. "Okay... One question."

Kirito nodded "Shoot."

"The Heck's a 'Little Red Ridinghood?'" She asked worriedly, to which Kirito planted a palm on his face, then screamed internally, nearly bursting out as he shuddered. "Oh, Christ save me..." He then whined, running his hand down his face angrily. He looked to Ruby, head crooked and said "Your parents never did read you bedtime stories, did they, Red?" To which Ruby looked away, pouting and said "They did. And this Little Red Ridinghood never came up anywhere!"

"Christ, you can be such a child." Kirito sighed. "What, your mom doesn't know it?" And he saw Ruby flinch and become red. The girl angrily stepped ahead and said "I'm done with this conversation!" And he stopped "Wait, what happened to your mom if you're like this?" To which Ruby said "She died when I was young..." making Kirito Flinch. "Jeez... Wow... I'm... I don't even know anymore. Sorry, I guess..."

"Eh..." Ruby waved it off. "Compared to the 2.000 that died live in front of me in this Video Game, it's a bit odd... But yeah, she died real early..."

"Alright, alright, Ruby, no... Let's not go into depressing shit here..." Kirito sighed.

"Too late, that ship has long sailed, buddy!" Ruby smirked, to which Kirito groaned and yelled "WHY ME!?" making little Red Ridinghood Scythe Monster laugh. It was just too fun not to mess with this guy.


	3. Arc I:The Moonlit Black Cats

_**April. Local tavern.**_

Kirito and Ruby sat idly at their table, with the red girl examining her sword and making modifications to her sword skills. It'd been some months since the two'd been sticking together... 'Sticking together' meaning Ruby was stuck to him like glue trying to make sure he didn't get himself killed. Even though this guy was a beta tester, she didn't want to see his crazy asshole self die. This local tavern they were in was usually a nice gathering place for people at this floor. She couldn't remember which it was, but it didn't much matter.

She saw a shadow(A pair of, actually) come over her as she was wearing her hood, then closed her menu and said "Whoever you are, if you're not at least a foot and a half away from me within the next five seconds, leaving my personal space alone, you'll lose your manliness or your uteru-" She turned her head around and saw two familiar faces, then gasped and smiled "Holy... Sachi, Keita!"

The two smiled, then Sachi intervened "I knew it was you the moment I saw your red hood, Ruby." Making Ruby stand up. "I haven't even had a chance to talk to you too. How've you been doing since, well... Y'know." Ruby rolled her eyes. Sachi nodded, then said "We've been fine. We actually formed a guild." TO which the Huntress smiled, then looked to Keita and nudged his arm "A guild~, Huuuuh~? Ufufu~, don't tell me you two did anything crazy."

Sachi and Keita, the latter who didn't get to say a word, became Flustered. Ruby was forced to dodge a slap coming from Sachi. "I was kidding!" The girl defended herself, making Kirito chuckle. She glared back at him, then said "What's so funny, Jackass?" And he waved it off, adding "Oh, nothing. Just what you were about to say was really interesting. Castration's funny for some reason."

"Before I realized I knew the people behind both sets." The girl sighed, sitting down and examining her blade. She looked to them, then stopped and glanced at three more people at the table with them. The Redheaded Keita smiled and said "Our other guild members..." Making Ruby somewhat uneasy. There was a blonde guy with an orange undercoat and light armor, alongside a beanie, a guy in purple with brown hair and a guy in green, with a green hat which Ruby had no name for, brown hair and medium armor. Keita looked to Ruby, then asked "Who's the guy in black?" pointing to Kirito.

"That?" Ruby asked mockingly, pointing to Kirito, who was glaring at her "That's just my incessantly annoying frienemy Partner, Kirito. His bark is bigger than his bite, so don't worry. I bite pretty hard nowadays, though."

"Yeah, the dust." Kirito said, his voice muffled by his glass. Ruby glared at him, then said "Shut uuup~." And sighed, grabbing her sword, sheathing it and taking her glass. Keita smirked, then looked to the waitress and yelled "Waitress, four drinks here, please!" To which the woman nodded, then moved to the counter. Immediately after, she brought the four drinks to the table. The four picked them up, then Sachi whispered to her "We wanna bring both of you into our guild... Long story short, we've got a plan." To which Ruby grinned. She stood up, raised her hand, then said "To Kirito!"

"To Kirito!" The rest of the group chanted, glasses clanking against each-other. Ruby sat down and took a sip, then looked to Kirito, who asked immediately "Who the hell are you four and why are you at my table?" And Keita chuckled, then said "Ah, Kirito, can I call you Kirito?"

"No..." Kirito said, an annoyance in her voice...

"Here's the thing, Kirito, I couldn't help but notice while I was rifling through your and Ruby's Character Page-" Keita started.

"I thought I had that set to private..." The two said in unison, Ruby with her eyes wide. Eitherway, keita continued "That you are not associated with any guilds! So the crew and I" He made a paranthesis "(I call them the Crew by the way) were thinking you should join our guild!" To which Kirito sighed, then said "Yeah, I'm not gonna do that." And Keita continued, to which Ruby glanced to Sachi, who sighed as the man went on "Now I know what you're thinking. 'Am I really worthy to be around these awesome dudes?"

"I literally never said that about anybody." Kirito deadpanned.

"But let me assure you, we could certainly use someone with your..." The boy stole a glance at Kirito's level, 40. "Assets..." And he moaned, for some reason. Kirito jumped in "Hey, hey, my eyes are down here!" And Ruby looked to him, then said "That is why I don't reveal my level."

"Right, right. So whaddaya say, Ki, Rubes? Can I call you two that?"

"GOD NO!" The two chanted in unison, looking toward Keita. They exchanged glances and yet again said "We need to stop doing that." To which Keita smirked, then said "Mhmm, I see... Well what if I put on this hat!" And a strange-looking ugly hat with goggles appeared on top of Keita's head. Kirito sighed, ran his hand down his face and said "Oh, don't be ridicu-" He paused, looked down at his hand "What the hell am I signing?"

Suddenly, both Ruby and Kirito saw brackets appear below their names, showing the guild they were part of. The Moonlit Black Cats. Ruby chuckled, then looked to Kirito and said "Well, tough luck now, buddy." And she downed her remaining drink, then looked to the waitress and yelled "Another one, please!" Before she looked to Keita and asked nonchalantly "So, why not introduce Kirito to the 'Crew'?"

"Right." Keita nodded, then he placed a hand on top of Sachi's head and said "This here's Sachi..." He cast a sideways glance at everyone else "While the others... They're NPCs."

"Wait, WHAT?" Both Kirito and Ruby barked, then looked to each-other and said "WE NEED TO STOP THAT, NOW!", the redhead shaking her head and rubbing her forehead. "God, I've been hanging around you too much..." And she sighed "Go on, explain to us what you meant by NPCs, Keita."

"Ah, right. Well, they're companions from other quests." He said, pointing to the trio.

"WE MUST SAVE MY FAMILY!" Yelled one of them, the one in orange.

"The Bandits are Coming!" The green one called.

"Should... We be worried?" Ruby asked, pointing at the two and already sharing the feeling of worry. Keita waved it off, then said "Eh. No. They say that like every two seconds." with calm. The last one yelled "Always remember to Jump! JUMP!" Quite jovially. "And... He's from the tutorial. It was a bad tutorial." Keita clarified. So he didn't even finish the tutorial, a thing which made Ruby sigh and groan.

"Remember:Winners don't use drugs! Unless it's steroids, in which case, USE LOTS OF DRUGS!" The Tutorial boy said, making Ruby twitch. The girl was about to burst, before she shook her head clear of the thought and looked toward Sachi. "Well... uhh..."

"T-Thank you for joining our guild, you gu-u-u-u-" Sachi's avatar flashed white and pixelated and her voice stuttered, to which Ruby's eyes widened, just as Kirito's did, before she burst out and asked at around the same time with Kirito again "SWEET MERCIFUL BUDDHA, WHAT THE _FUCK_?!" But Ruby said _'Heck'_ instead of swearingAnd Keita placed a hand on Sachi's head, then said "Ah, don't worry. Sachi lives out in the boonies so her internet is kinda shi-i-i-i-" The two depixelated at the same time. Ruby staggered back and saw people start yelling as panick instilled. "OH GOD, IT'S SPREADING!" "FLEE! GRAB THE WOMEN AND CHILDREN!" and "GOOD IDEA, WE CAN USE THEM AS SHIELDS!" And a window exploded...

Haha, the shenanigans... Four people died in that fire...

* * *

But from the ashes, a powerful friendship emerged. The few weeks the crew started spending together were amazing. Kirito came to be friends with everyone, including Ruby, got him closer to everyone. He got to tolerate them in time. Something ever unexpected with the bastard in the room. The first of their adventures would barely be beginning soon, so Kirito wanted to make sure this'd work.

At the training ground of the guild, just outside at the Teleport gate of... Whatever this town was named, Ruby parried one of Kirito's sword strikes with a grin. This wasn't a 'to-the-death' duel, but it was a duel to test their skills. She watched Kirito's blade come down, but decided to move out of the way, instead of opting to parry it, before she sent the blade flying inches from his throat and slashing through the air. She watched Kirito's blade while working with hers, then dodged again and attacked. She sliced twice, once across and once in an uppercut, sending Kirito into the defensive.

She watched as Kirito charged toward her and, utilizing one of her defensive sword skills, Violet Bloom, she parried all strikes sent forward by Kirito's offensive sword skill, Horizontal, before switching to Rosebud for a continuous strike pattern. Multiple slices later, one of her attacks managed to pierce Kirito's defense, causing a small scratch on his face, but not knocking him out of the match. She smirked, before bringing up a new skill she'd learnt with helping to defeat lil' Ol' Illfang. She smirked, before her blade became covered in a golden light and she yelled "THE XIAO-LONG PARALLEL!" As she cut once below Kirito's arc of defense, for his right leg and once above, right at the chest, dropping his health into the yellow. She made parallel cuts. The duel was decided... As a draw... Ruby looked at her stomach, then noticed her health dropped to yellow as well.

"Wow!" Sachi said, smiling as she clapped. "You two were amazing!" And she dropped into the ring, running toward both of them. She yanked them both into a hug, before Kirito chuckled weakly and said "Okay... A lot of love now, Sachi... Please, stahp." And the blue-haired girl backed off with a smile. She looked to Ruby, then nodded to her and said "How did you do that skill?"

"The Xiao-Long Parallel? Something I kind a made up... But it's a skill you can quickly learn if you wield swords..." Ruby smiled, sheathing her sword. She looked to Kirito, then asked "Care for it, buddy-boy?"

"I think I'm good, Red." Smirked Kirito, sheathing his Anneal Blade onto his back. Ruby smirked, then said "Alright then, Smarty-pants." walking away. "C'mon, Sachi. Got some stuff to deal with back in our room."

"Sure thing!" Sachi said. Kirito nodded, then waved to them and said "Alright, alright I guess I'll go... Meet up with Kei-ohgod no." And he started walking away. Ruby looked to Kirito, then yelled "HEY!" making the boy turn around. He shrugged, to which Ruby asked "WHAT THE HECK DOES ' _FUCK_ ' MEAN?" nonchalantly, making Sachi cringe and blush, flailing her hands around like crazy and Kirito sigh deeply. He waved it off and said "YOU'RE TOO YOUNG FOR IT!"

Freaking cinnamon roll of a kid...

"D'aww! YOU'RE NO FUN!" She yelled, smiling, then waved goodbye. Kirito rolled his eyes, then said "What is wrong with this girl...?" And he shrugged, walking toward one of the local feeding fields. Sachi glanced toward Ruby as they walked away toward their Inn, then asked "Xiao-Long?" With high curiosity. Ruby sighed, nodded and said "Yeah... My stepsister's family name."

"Wow... She in this game too?" Sachi asked, hitting the emotional Jackpot. Ruby shrugged. She knew she wasn't on remnant anymore, considering she was speaking to people from some planet named 'Earth' and from one of its hundreds of nations, 'Japan'. She sighed, shrugged, then said "I don't exactly know... I'm looking for her while working with you guys, so..."

"Oh..."

...

Kirito saw him, then stopped with a grin on his face. The four of this guild trained and took out bosses quite easily and quickly, making him grin. He waved to a redheaded guy with a bandana, then said "HEY, BALLSY!"

Klein cringed "Oh, god... _Not again_..." and he got knocked over by a mob, right into the nuts...


	4. AICh I:OH NO

_**Town. Late night.**_

"... Some say a White-haired chick was spotted some time ago wandering the pine forests on the 27th floor... God knows fer what reason, though." An information broker, a girl clad in a black hood, told Ruby. The girl had brown eyes, black hair and a strange accent, as well as a dagger and light armor hidden under her cloak. Ruby sighed, nodded to her, then said "Thanks, Fukko. How much would that be?"

"200 Col, sweetheart. The usual." The girl smirked, to which Ruby nodded, then dropped a pouch of money into the girl's hand. Fukko started counting it, then looked to Ruby and asked "Care to give info on your back-mounted boxy weapon there, Rose? You might get a hefty price for info on how to make it, or how it works!" with an awfully creepy joy in her eyes. Ruby shook her head, then said sternly "Crescent Rose isn't a secret I can just sell. Thanks for the offer, though." And she started walking away. Fukko sighed, nodded and said "Alright, alright... You know to yell if you need anything."

"I do." Ruby smiled, nodding to the Info Broker. "Later, alligator." And she gave her friend a mock salute, then started walking down the main road of the town. The place was lit up by several hundreds of torches and street-lights, all turned on and off by player hand. She was getting some eerie glances from some people in the street, but a good thing was that no one knew what she was carrying and, much more, what her current level was. She was a meager 100 XP away from being able to utilize Crescent Rose again. Then again, sharpening her sword skills like she has been so far with Kirito and finally entering that temporary guild.

Oh, the joy of using Crescent Rose again brought her to tears some times. She'd stow the tears away and happily smile whenever she passed everyone else, both with an air of superiority and one of joy, knowing she would easily be able to defend them from any major threat. She grinned, covering herself with her hood more, as she moved down the crowded roads toward the Inn where the Cats were stationed at. She sighed as she kept on walking, past stands and past all the people around, friendly faces or not. Sad to think these people were stuck here while they could've been at home, either with family, friends or lovers.

She heard a scream coming from one of the alleyways thanks to her powerful hearing, then swiveled about, wrapping her hand on the hilt of her sword behind the red cloth she covered herself with, running toward the location of the sounds. She stopped, taking cover by a wall. There, the little red hooded girl saw them. Three males clad in silvery-white armors with black capes and skirt-like things hanging by their waists walked toward a girl, who was basically defenseless. Ruby's hand twitched on her blade, but she decided to walk in anyway.

"Come on, girlie. We'll pay handsomely!" Said one of them in a strange accent, an Italian one. He wanted to grab the girl, but felt a tap on his shoulder from one of his friends. He swiveled about, to see Ruby there. His grin widened, before he said "Lost there, girl?" To which Ruby answered dully, in a single tone "No. But I believe you may be. I see this kind of treatment is still not gone in this world." A saying which made the bastards laugh aloud. The leader, presumably, continued, then said "Hear this, boys? What a mouth on'er!" And he walked toward Ruby "My, would I love to see you using it on something else." And he stretched to grab her chin, before feeling the air get knocked out of him and immeasurable pain between his legs. The man got sent flying back toward the other two, skidding to a halt just by them, a cut mark shining red between his legs.

The two, shocked, turned toward Ruby, to see her body uncovered, cape flailing in the wind, while her hood was still on her head. She also had her Anneal Blade drawn from its sheath by her hip. She sighed, then said "I was kinda hoping we didn't have to do this the hard way. I know the towns are safe zones and all, but seriously, if bladed weapons still hurt, why bother?" And she smirked, taking a combat stance.

"You... Bitch..." Swore the commander, standing up and utilizing his sword to balance himself as he staggered from the pain. He looked to his comrades, then yelled "GET HER, BOYS!" in pure, unadulterated anger and the two nodded, rushing ahead with weapons drawn. They attacked and Ruby parried the strikes, before throwing a kick to one's face and stabbing the other one's hand, making him drop his shortsword. She watched the two stagger back in pain, then looked to the girl and said "Go on! Get outta here! I'll deal with these guys!"

The girl nodded, before running off past all of them. Ruby looked around herself, then said "Well... Back off now? Or get KO'd?"

All of them drew their weapons yet again, making Ruby's grin widen "Alright then. KO it is."

* * *

Ruby walked through the door of her room, that which she shared with Sachi, slowly opening the door. She slithered in, pushed it back slowly, then sighed. She went to her inventory, removed her hood, put Crescent Rose and her sword into her 'safety locker', then switched to pajamas and walked toward her bed. She stopped as she felt a hand on her shoulder, turned around, grabbed the arm and wanted to punch who it was... Before seeing it was Kirito. She furrowed her brows, let his hand go and asked in a whisper "What're you doing in this room?"

"Keita was getting annoying." Kirito sighed "And that says a lot about him. Can we talk at the Inn's reception room?" To which the girl rolled her eyes, nodded and said "Wait outside and let me put on my proper clothes again." And she turned to change. Kirito later found himself waiting on her at the Inn's reception, sitting idly on a woolen chair and looking about. He stopped his glance to see Ruby coming toward him, hood off her head and cape flailing weakly as she moved, but no weapons. She shrugged, then asked "What's up, Kirito?"

He grinned "So I heard some peculiar noises outside earlier tonight." making Ruby's eyes widen "Oh, boy." a thing to which Kirito's grin widened "aaand~ I found three guys who had multiple cut wounds that were disappearing already and, of course, bruised eyes. Now, I knew someone must've attacked them, but, oh, for WHAT reason I wonder? Apparently, some people reported a girl being bullied to the local authorities and, when they arrived on-site, they stayed back as they watched a girl in a red hood FIGHT ALL 3 MEN." And he looked to Ruby "Sound familiar, Red?"

Ruby rubbed the back of her head "Well... Not really..." She lied, sighing. The two locked gazes and Ruby growled, then said "FINE! I helped a girl that was being threatened by three bastards! Is that so wrong?"

"No." Kirito smirked. "What's wrong is hiding the level you're at even compared to me... Level 99?" He whispered, making Ruby back off. "How'd you!" She started yelling, before Kirito smirked, patted her on the head, then said "Eh-eh-eh. Our little secret, Red." And he walked toward the door to his and Keita's room and said "Don't worry. I'm not the kind of asshole who would just spill out your level... But you owe me some stuff for this."

"Aw, crap..." Ruby sighed, then she nodded, arms crossed and pouting. She finished up and walked toward her and Sachi's room, set herself up and got into bed, pajamas on. Later on in the morning, the girl found herself walking toward the restaurant near the Inn, clad in her usual huntress' clothing. She walked toward the table everyone usually sat at and was waved at by Sachi, who smiled. She sat down at her usual seat beside Kirito, then said "I presume Kirito told you guys I defended a girl from trouble last night?"

Sachi and Keita nodded.

"WE MUST SAVE MY FAMILY."

Ruby sighed deeply, then chuckled. "Damned Bots... We should just finish their quests, honestly."

"Beh. The extra inventory space is good, if anything." Kirito said, leaning onto the table. Keita nodded, then said "Exactly my thoughts, Ki." with a wide smile, making Kirito growl. The guild leader ignored that and continued "Anyways, I heard of this new dungeon that was discovered an hour's travel away from here, with a field boss that's supposed to hand us out tonnes of money and loot, but it's also very strong... Some level 33, compared to us, soooo~... I was thinking, since we have two people of pretty high levels..." He looked to Kirito and Ruby. "Wink"

"Still not how you wink..." Kirito murmured.

"What?" The girl asked, crossing her arms. "Oh, you want US to clear you out a dungeon?"

"Jackpot!" Smirked Keita. Ruby sighed, nodded and said "Alright... I'm game. Getting pretty stale to sit in here and just train with Kirito all the freakin' time." And Kirito nodded, then said "Okay. You can clear it out on your own, then." And Ruby glared toward him, while the others gasped. He smirked, shaking his glass of water, hinting that he'd spill. Ruby sighed, nodded, then sat down and said "Right. I think I can deal with it on my own. Kirito's too scared to eitherway." And she grinned, before Sachi said "I wanna join in too!"

"Okay then, Sachi. Could use some company." Ruby answered, then gave Kirito a sideways glance and murmured just enough so he could here "On Keita duty again, buddy." As she had her glass near her mouth. Kirito scowled as he saw the girl smirk , then down her entire glass of water. Before Sachi could say anything, the two girls were already gone. Of course, they'd had time to finish lunch, so they were on their way. Armed and ready, the girls walked out of the Inn... To be greeted by Kirito's black-and-blue coat, raven hair and dark-colored eyes.

"Oh, what's up? Decided to come?" Ruby asked, grinning. Kirito nodded, then said "I am not hanging around Keita right now. I've got a major headache thanks to him."

Ruby grinned, nodded and said "Aye aye, Kirito." And she waved both of them to follow, then opened her map. She'd set a marker of where it was thanks to Keita's info. The group continued walking for a while, down the path, as several others moved across into the towns. After an hour of walking, the team sat down in front of the entryway to the dungeon, a cave, and grabbed their supplies from their bags. Well, Lunch, as a matter of fact. Some sandwiches Ruby made for the road. She had put points into her cooking skill, but was only halfway through maxing it out. She sighed, taking a bite, then looked around, a bit distraught as she saw pine trees around them. They did enter a forest near the mountainside of this floor.

"Something wrong, Ruby?" Asked Sachi, genuinely worried. Ruby looked to her, smiled and shook her head "Nah. I'm fine." And she stood up, stowing the rest of the sandwich for later. She pointed at the cave entrance, then said "I'll go scout out ahead." To which Kirito nodded "Alright. You know what to do if you need backup."

"Yell?" Ruby raised an eyebrow.

"Don't call for me." Kirito deadpanned. Ruby rolled her eyes, then walked inside, drawing her sword. The girl immediately regretted entering, as she aggro'd a dozen small creatures. Small, squat and looking like those things she'd read about in fairy tales, some two dozen Slaughternauts moved toward her, raising their pickaxes, their eyes shining dark-red. Ruby sighed, readied her blade, then attacked.

Three of the small creatures fell to Ruby's first slice, before she kicked low, stomping a fourth one's face in and stabbed a fifth through the face. She hit a sword skill, making her blade shine orange and attacked in a 360 degree arc, cutting the heads off six more creatures. She smirked, raised her blade, then jumped into the air, performing a backflip as the creatures prepared to attack with their pickaxes. She checked her progress bar midair, then saw it... Level 100... She smirked and continued attacking, rather to not waste Crescent Rose's ammo and reveal her. She hit one of the squat things with a pummel strike, sending it reeling, then cut across its chest, dropping its HP to 0. Minutes later, the last few had been defeated and Kirito and Sachi joined the girl.

"Wow... Took on 12 monsters all by yourself?" Kirito mocked, making Ruby sigh. She nodded, then pointed at the door in the far back and said "I think that's a boss room in this place."

"This early?" Sachi wondered, holding her shield and sword close. Ruby'd thought about switching the girl's loadout to a spear-wielding one. Would be better for them... Eitherway, after minutes of mowing through some weaker mobs than the Slaughternauts, Kirito, Ruby and Sachi had made it to the boss door... Something with an odd, devil's skull on it. A human skull with horns... Ruby sighed, then pushed the door open and waved the two in. And the boss, he materialized in front of with its name:

 ** _Shadow Nuckelavee_**

The creature had a bent-over human torso without skin, with long arms and claw-like fingers. Its red muscles were pulsating as it moved around and its first head resembled that of a humanoid's, but with elongated jaws and sharp teeth. It had no eyes in the eyesockets, only empty darkness staring at them. Of course, that was only 'half' the animal... It also had a lower horse body, a full-on horse, without skin on its body, jaws revealed and smoke pouring out of its every pore.

" _ **HOLY JESUS. WHAT IS THAT? WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?!**_ " Kirito screamed in disgust, while Ruby stared at it and said "I... Think we're gonna need a bigger sword..." And Sachi cowered behind them. The creature's human torso snapped up straight, its empty eyes staring at them, its jaws wide open... It growled, then let out a shriek so loud it made all currently present players cover their ears. Sachi screamed back, then hid behind Ruby.

" _Definitely_ gonna need a bigger sword..." Ruby patronized, sighing...


	5. AICh II:Daemonswords for Days?

The girl's hand twitched around the hilt of her sword as she was forced to dodge out of the way of one of the monster's black and red limbs. She looked to Kirito and Sachi taking positions across the other side, then considered the use of _Crescent Rose._ The boss was a level 45 monster, 5 levels higher than Kirito and some 20 above Sachi. The girl sighed, pointed the tip of her sword at the Nuckelavee, then rushed ahead... Suddenly, as her feet pushed her forward across the floor, she saw the blue banner below the Health Bar, the one with Aura, flashing. Immediately, the girl felt a surge of power in her bones.

Her blade and cloak shined her crimson red as she pushed ahead, dodging both of the creature's arms as it gargled and shrieked from time to time, in both surprise and anger. The girl barreled past the two outstretched arms, sliced the one on her right, then jumped on the second one as it retracted, holding on. The girl, as she finally arrived close to the creature's body, cut the other arm and flew toward it, sending a powerful cut across its chest and making it scream in absolute pain, a hellish shriek. She did a midair somersault and landed, feet against one of the boss chamber's walls, then pushed herself ahead and sliced, but was forced to parry as one of the creature's arms, reattached to its body already, struck at her, sending her tumbling across the floor.

"Holy warpfuckery, Ruby." Kirito said, drawing his Anneal Blade and going beside her "The fuck did we just see?"

"That speed." Sachi continued, raising her shield to parry the creature's strike and deflecting its arm back. She then looked at Ruby and smiled, then said "You were so frickin' fast my eyes couldn't keep up." And the silver-eyed girl smiled, taking a combat stance, then said "Well, I'm pretty strong and that usually translates to speed, don't it?" To which Kirito smirked and said "Strong thighs, then."

"Yep." Ruby smirked, then looked at the creature and added "Aim for the nape?"

Kirito smirked " _Sie sind das essen und wir sind die jaeger!"_

"The wha-" Ruby asked as a theme tune played above them, seemingly powerful and motivating, but also fast and strong in its instrumental. Strange. Kirito looked up with a glare that could tear through a Grimm Goliath and said "Copyright, much?" Then he sighed and looked to Ruby "Let's just go. I'll explain the references later." And the two attacked the creature head-on, Ruby parrying one of its arms and Kirito jumping over the other. The two approached from both flanks, blades behind their backs as they charged, preparing their swings. The creature didn't know who to focus on, so it tried to take them both on, but before it could react, it felt two cuts clean across its human torso's back and part of its Health Bar dropped (To be exact, the first half of the first bar)

Two more cuts came from both sides and its health dropped considerably. Nearly another bar and a half, leaving it at the one bar and in the yellow zone. Three health bars for a 45-level monster was a stupid design choice by name... Ruby smirked, looked to Kirito, then said "This is too ea-" And before she could finish her sentence, reality hit her as one of the creature's arms caught her and dragged her across the wall, cutting her own health bar to near zero. Kirito chuckled, then said "Serves ya ri-" And he got scooped up too, receiving nearly the same treatment, but thankfully blocking the strike. He was in the red like Ruby, while the hit would've killed him at that level.

"What the hell is wrong with this thing?" Kirito panted, glaring daggers at the creature. "It's like the motherfucker isn't even trying!"

"From the looks of it... It ain't..." Ruby responded, leaning herself on her sword and panting. The girl scowled as she stared at the monstrosity. She stood up, took a combat stance, brandishing her sword, then charged ahead at maximum speed, her blade creating sparks as it skidded on the floor and leaving a burning white mark across the stone floor of the cave. The Nucklelavee's eyes flashed orange as it targeted Ruby, proceeding to charge toward her as if in a joust. Ruby raised her sword from the floor, utilizing both hands and her own strength, then fell to her knees, skidding under the creature's arm as it struck and slashing again across its horse body, leaving a massive red gash from which pixels began to emerge.

The girl swiveled about, planting her blade into the ground and stopping herself. She then yanked, thrusting herself and her weapon toward the creature. _Think of all of your enemies as Grimm... Easy to kill if alone!_ Her thoughts told her. She smirked, then thought up a plan to defeat the creature as Kirito joined the fight, slashing at its arms with renewed vigor. Sachi joined in too, defending with her shield and attacking an arm herself. Ruby, all the while this was happening, jumped onto the creature's back using her powers, shocking it and the others at the sudden transport, then she sliced across its less armored, but spiky back, cutting spikes and finally digging into its dark 'skin', before bringing her blade up above her head, then slamming it down upon the creature, splitting its human top of the body in half. Her blade then thrust into the regenerated horse-head as she cried a battle cry so loud it reverberated throughout the cave.

Its health bar dropped to 0... And Ruby saw it vanish, shattering into pixelated shards and finally dissipating into the air. The girl landed on the floor on her knees, sword against the ground to support herself, the Red Crusader panted, virtual sweat falling from her brow and landing with a quiet plop onto the cave's floor... She smirked, then looked to Kirito and Sachi, who were hunched over and said "We... We did it..." Panting heavily.

An 'Item Received' window appeared ahead of her. It was a weapon... Ruby pressed her hand against it, to reveal a new blade that appeared into her hand. It looked like a daemon-sword, with the Chaos six-pointed Star as its hilt guard, alongside a blade etched in strange symbols. The girl stood up, examining the blade's every intricate detail, them she smirked, slashing forward with it, only to leave a cut across the wall behind Sachi and Kirito, which then exploded, scaring both of them.

"WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?!" Kirito snapped, looking at the sword fearfully "THIS IS A CHAOS-CORRUPTED SWORD WITH THE 4 GODS' HERALDRY! THE FUCK!?"

"What's it doing in SAO?!" Sachi gasped, staring at the weapon with newfound respect. Ruby looked to them, then asked "I-Is it bad if it's Chaos-corrupted?" to which Kirito sighed deeply, then said "That thing can and _will_ tear through the world with ease... It's an OP Sword our dear old admin must've forgotten to remove or hit with the Nerf Hammer... Its stats should be like 999 damage and 999 speed, plus 999 Strength, since going up to the thousands for gear stats is beyond him... Also, the Trademarking for the Chaos symbols must've been a _bitch_ to get a hold of, since Gee-Dubs went out of business 4 years ago and the trademarks were all sold to several companies... And yet Warhammer 40k Still thrives..." He exhaled happily, with a smile "Ah, what a community will do to a game."

"Hey, walking pop culture of humanity references that I don't understand..." Ruby sighed, sheathing the Chaos-corrupted sword. "The blade is named the Wrath of the Immaterium... Any idea why?"

"The 4 Chaos gods live in a different dimension called that, or the Warp." Kirito explained "It's basically a huge seizure-inducing realm of soulstuff and other crap, like dark thoughts and shit."

"Oh..." Ruby's eyes narrowed upon the sword. "Well... I'd better not start hearing those 4 gods from it... Who are they by the way?"

As the trio walked out with their new weapon in sheath, Kirito started explaining "Well, there's Khorne, the-" He saw Ruby chuckle, then say "You said Corn..." making the boy roll his eyes as he continued "The chaos God of War. He is an always-angry paraplegic with a chainsaw ax and a blood and skulls fetish." And seeing Ruby's and Sachi's faces turn into those of disgust, he continued happily "Then there's Grandfather Nurgle, the gigantic space trash bag that creates all sorts of crappy diseases, like crotch rot, eternal nose itching and stuff like that... Oh, and a zombie plague that one time, but I think the Inquisition in the Warhammer-verse dealt with that. Long story. Anyways, then, there's Slaanesh... It's... I can't even comprehend myself what she/he/it/Insertgendertaghere is supposed to be, but she/he/it/Insertgendertaghere has something to do with pleasure and pain. And finally, my personally favorite, Tzeentch. That fuckwit of a space mollusk that'll turn your head upside down both figuratively and literally with all his riddles and FUBAR plans."

"Jesus Christ..." Sachi exhaled, looking at the sword. "It's strangely alluring, I'll say that much..."

Kirito shook his head, then said "Well, too bad, so sad! We're fucking selling it. I don't want to know what Kayaba has programmed it to do(Probably turning people mad or some shit) and we're splitting the profits." He smirked "And I know just the bastard to sell it to." looking at the two girls, who blinked in confusion. He nodded, then said "Follow me..." Taking out his teleport crystal.

* * *

 _ **Tiff's Shop.**_

Coming in from narrowed streets in the middle of the night after dropping off Sachi at the hotel, into a store, Ruby was happily smiling upon seeing her old pal. The giant black man with a woman's name swiveled about from his shelves, with a grin, then gave them a mock salute and said "Ah, Kirito! Ruby! How's my least favorite and my most favorite customer, respectively, doing!" to which the two laughed.

"Tiff. Thought I'd seen the last of you on Floor 5." Ruby admitted, holding her cloak over herself and her new sword. The man smirked, then said "Nah. I switch shops regularly. Sell the first property for some money and get this new one with the sales and all." to which Kirito then asked in mockery"Who did you rip off for this place?" Looking about at the inside of the store.

"I feel like I was actually ripped off for it." Admitted the afro-American "Anyway, what brings y'all here? Got something you need, or perhaps something to sell?"

Kirito looked to Ruby , then nodded. Ruby rolled her eyes, then muttered "I would've given it to Keita and let him sell it, but I think the poor idiot would've kept it..." and drew the Chaos-cursed sword, making Tiff snap back and stagger upon seeing it. He gasped, then said "T-That thing is..." to which Ruby nodded calmly and said "Yep. Legendary sword from one of the Field bosses of this game."

"Dude... I've had customers comin' in here asking for that thing and its location... How did you..." Tiff stuttered, to which Ruby shrugged and said "Unlike them, there was three of us."

"They had ENTIRE PARTIES of well-armed level 25 personnel with'em..." Tiff said. Ruby and Kirito exchanged glances, then looked to Tiff and shrugged "Must've been idiots." to which the Black man sighed, bowing his head in defeat, then said "Just hand it here and let me appraise it." to which Ruby merely gave it to the man, then proceeded to explore the store with Kirito. Neat place. It had food, weapons, potions for healing and even teleport crystals. So this was a good place to be...

They heard Tiff drop the sword and looked toward him. He raised his hand and spread his fingers, then yelled "1,000,000 COL. THIS SHIT IS EXPENSIVE AS _FUCK_!" making their eyes widen in shock. That WAS A lot for an early-player to the game, considering you could buy all of this floor's early gear and possibly a new house on this floor, WHILE STILL HAVING SOME MONEY LEFT.

"So it is a rare sword... Like, rarer than even S-Class ingredients..." Kirito chuckled awkwardly... "Uhm, we just wanna get rid of it Tiff. Opening bid?"

"I'll give you 500,000 for it! Just please let me keep it!" The man yelled, hugging the weapon. Ruby and Kirito looked at each-other, then Kirito said "Think he's..." to which Ruby nodded "Yyyup. Chaos possession." and then she smirked "Let's just destroy the sword."

"WHAT?" Tiff asked, eyes wide as the two approached him menacingly. He started yelling "OKAY, GUYS, I'M NOT POSSESSED, BUT SERIOUSLY, GOOD SWORD AND ALL! PLEASE DON'T! SERIOUSLY AWFUCK-"

Cut to a few moments later, the sword shattered and its remains, red-crimson crystals instead of normal ones, scattered into the night sky. Kirito and Ruby left the place after the red girl comforted a crying Tiff by giving him a hug, a bit of food and saying "There's always the next weapon to sell." before leaving. The redhead rubbed her temples and said "God, I feel so much better... That sword was ACTUALLY giving me headaches..."

"Oh... Crap."


End file.
